


never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary

by circulareasoning



Category: The Half of It (2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, F/F, Fluff, that hot spring moment but gayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:47:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23971054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circulareasoning/pseuds/circulareasoning
Summary: They’re out in nature right now, “cell service doesn’t work out here,” Aster had said with a teasing smile, like she’d deliberately taken them away from Squahamish so they can be alone, away from friends and family and other prying eyes, like they can be in their own little world, half-naked in a hot spring—Wait,what.The hot spring scene, but different. (And by different, I mean gayer.)
Relationships: Ellie Chu/Aster Flores
Comments: 38
Kudos: 738





	never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched The Half of It yesterday and oh my god, I had so many feelings about the hot spring scene, I just—how can you have two teenagers in a hot spring and not have them make out!! So yeah, I did this.
> 
> Some dialogue taken/paraphrased from canon.

Ellie is having a _day_.

What else is there to call it when you go on a day-long adventure with your crush who is also your best friend (who is also _paying_ you to write to her)’s crush slash girlfriend slash question mark who you’ve been desperately pretending is not your crush even though she makes your usual outspoken and too-loud mind go completely blank with just a look, and maybe sometimes you’ve wondered like that time in the bathroom when she gave you a _look_ except she’s now your best friend’s probably-girlfriend, and this is getting so complicated it’s not even quite making sense in your head—

Ellie has been having an excellent day, hanging out with Aster, who is smart and hilarious and beautiful and _too good for her in every way_ especially in regards to social competence, who has been trying to keep Ellie involved in conversation and activities even when she’s been the most awkward human being on this Earth. In other words, Aster is perfect, or at least perfect for Ellie _,_ although that’s not something Ellie didn’t already know.

The car stops, and Ellie realizes she has no idea where they are other than that it’s just off the road near some trees, and oh shit, is Aster about to murder her? For not sleeping with her maybe-boyfriend? They’d been having such a good time—

“Where are we?” she asks, before she can get too overwhelmed.

Aster smiles at her, her beautiful brown eyes sparkling, and honestly if Ellie is about to be murdered right now, she doesn’t even care. “I told you, my favorite place.”

It’s an incredibly useless piece of information, but Ellie smiles back anyway, because she has zero control over her body whenever Aster is involved, because she’s an absolute sap.

Aster holds out a hand, and Ellie stares blankly at it for thirty seconds too long, but Aster just laughs, and reaches out to take Ellie’s hand in her own, and just the touch of skin-to-skin is enough to set Ellie’s brain into overdrive, sweat building in all the most uncomfortable places and her mouth spluttering and making unattractive shapes, and Aster says, “follow me,” with another brilliant smile and Ellie goes limp.

They reach a small clearing with what looks to be a steaming hot spring in front of them, and Ellie can’t help thinking, _does Washington have the geography to have hot springs?_

By the time she looks back, Aster already has her shirt half off, and _what the fuck_ , Ellie whips to turn around, staring wide-eyed at the trees around them. “Are these deciduous trees?”

Smooth.

“I wouldn’t know,” Aster replies. There’s a small splash, and Ellie decides it’s probably safe now, turning around and feeling inexplicably disappointed that she didn’t see Aster naked.

Aster, likely-girlfriend of Paul, her best friend.

“You’re not going to leave me alone in here, are you?” Aster asks, and Ellie’s mind blanks out. 

“Of course not,” she rushes to say, fingers already at the end of her outer shirt, pulling it half up before her mind catches up. She pauses, and Aster raises one amused eyebrow before she turns around, and her hair is beautiful when it’s running free, pooling into the spring, damp against her pale skin—

Ellie takes off her outer shirt, hesitating over her pants before she finally sheds those as well. She slips into the spring before she can argue herself out of this stupid, terrible, absolutely dumb idea.

When she’s fully ensconced in the water, Aster turns to her, that same gorgeous smile on her face, and then she stands, and yes Aster’s face is lovely and amazing, but Ellie’s only human, so her eyes drop and only the top of Aster’s breasts are above water, but the water’s _clear_ and holy fucking shit, they’re breathtaking. Even when she’s sitting, Ellie nearly trips over her own feet, sinking further into the water and wondering if this is what drowning feels like.

-

Religion is one of the core institutions that keeps Squahamish together. Everyone in the tiny town makes it to church service on Sundays, the community gathering together once a week in joint ceremony.

Ellie and her father go because it’s heresy not to. Her father is Buddhist and Ellie is without faith since her mother died too early, too young. But since moving to Squahamish, they attend church, because that’s how you befriend the community, because they already talk poorly enough about _those Chinese folks_ without need to add heathen to the label.

Church is where Ellie sees Aster for the first time, her soothing voice reading out passages, her pretty face just visible over the pulpit. She’s the pastor’s daughter, which is not the reason why Ellie falls in love with her, because she’s a stereotype in many ways but not in the weird heathen, forbidden nun-wanting way, but it’s certainly one of the reasons why Ellie knows Aster will never return her feelings.

Ellie falls in love one day on the school track, waiting by the bleachers for one of her buyers to meet her to make an exchange. Aster is sitting on one of the middle benches, wind ruffling her hair while she reads a book, _The Remains of the Day_. She looks up, and she must spot Ellie because she smiles and waves, and Ellie doesn’t believe in God, but Aster’s face was glowing, halo atop her head and white wings spread behind her.

Not an angel; those don’t exist. Aster. Her star.

-

They’re out in nature right now, _“cell service doesn’t work out here,”_ Aster had said with a teasing smile, like she’d deliberately taken them away from Squahamish so they can be alone, away from friends and family and other prying eyes, like they can be in their own little world, half-naked in a hot spring—

Wait, _what_.

“Um,” she says, and Aster looks at her encouragingly. “Why me?”

Aster hums, swirling her hands in the water for a moment while she thinks. “You know, someone told me I need to make a bold stroke to change a good painting to a great one.” There’s a fat water droplet dripping down from Aster’s hairline down her cheek and Ellie can’t help but track its fall. “So I guess that’s what this is: a bold stroke.”

Right, that was her. Or well, Aster must think that was Paul.

“Ah,” she says, as the totally articulate human she is.

Aster looks at her from under her eyelashes, shy and coy, like the look they’d shared in the bathroom that one time. “So, why me?”

Ellie splutters, because does Aster know? Wait, no, Aster can’t know, there’s no way she knows, they’ve been so sneaky about this. “What?”

“Why’d you come with me?”

“Oh.” Relief floods Ellie’s system just as much as disappointment. “Uh. I—I’ve always wanted to get to know you better.”

This time, Aster’s smile is slightly different from the others. It’s just as dazzling as the ones that came before, but there’s a particular feeling to this one that Ellie quite can’t put her finger on.

“Same here,” Aster says. “I’ve read some of the essays you’ve written for other people before, and they’re good. Really good.”

“Oh, um. Thanks.”

“You read a lot of books, right?” It sounds like a perfectly innocent question, but Aster has a studying, analyzing look on her face. “There’s a lot of veiled references in your essays.”

“Yeah,” Ellie says carefully. “It’s a great way to pass time. Um, when you’re alone.”

“I know that feeling,” Aster says. They share a look, their experiences of being bookworms in a tiny town with little to no culture. “Who’s your favorite author?”

“That would be—I couldn’t choose.”

There’s a pause, a moment for silence. The only sound around them the rare cricket that dares to chirp.

“Are you familiar with Kazuo Ishiguro?” The question comes out lazily, casually, and Ellie doesn’t think about it when she answers.

“ _The Remains of the Day_ is one of my favorites.” Ellie smiles fondly. “But I feel like it missed out, not focusing on the Nazi angle a little more.”

Aster looks at her sharply, and Ellie blinks, looking around them to see them still alone, still isolated in nature. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes,” Aster says. “Yes, of course.”

But then Aster stands, and it takes everything in Ellie to keep her gaze focused on Aster’s face and not—nothing below that. “What are your thoughts on Sartre?”

Well, random, but. “Hell is other people,” Ellie jokes. “I thought _No Exit_ was an excellent commentary on—um.”

Aster’s walking towards her now, water rippling around her and every step bringing her closer and closer while Ellie backs herself against the rock, plastering herself against it in her effort to stay away. “Um,” Ellie says, hands gripping at the edge of the spring, fixated on Aster’s dark eyes and her wicked smile. “I—did I say something wrong?”

“No,” Aster says, hypnotic and mesmerizing. “You said all the right things.”

Ellie’s arms feel suddenly weak, no strength in them to lift her out of the spring, leaving her trapped. Like she hasn’t been trapped this whole time, stuck between her own infatuation and her promise to Paul, like she hasn’t been a fish on the hook for every line Aster’s texted her.

Aster’s eyes are dark, so very dark, pupils dilated, cheeks freckled and blushed pink from the heat, lips red and rosy. She’s close, face barely centimeters away, and Ellie could count her eyelashes from this distance. “Ellie Chu,” Aster says, breath ghosting along Ellie’s skin. “You’re the one who’s read _The Remains of the Day._ ”

“I—” Ellie’s voice breaks as Aster runs a hand along her face, cupping her cheek in her palm. “I have.”

“SmithCorona,” Aster says, and Ellie freezes. Because Aster knows, Aster _knows_ , and has Ellie always been this stupid? Of course Aster knows, because Ellie’s basically fed her all of the information, struck stupid by the heat and Aster’s smiles and her bared skin and—

Aster runs a finger along Ellie’s lips, and Ellie’s consciousness rushes back with it. “Stop thinking,” Aster murmurs, and suddenly she’s even closer, her lips against Ellie’s, and the spring was already warm but now she’s hot, heat flaring everywhere as Aster leans in, crowding her against the rocky edge, body snug up against Ellie’s, one hand solidly against Ellie’s face and the other—the other slowly running down Ellie’s shoulder, to her waist, to her—

Ellie gasps, because there is a hand on her chest—her _breasts_ , fingers gentle and tentative over her shirt. Aster has kissed before, this much is clear, her lips and tongue moving against Ellie’s even while Ellie’s fumbling, trying to reciprocate because this is amazing, this is everything she’s wished for, but she’s awkward, awkward with words and her body, and Aster is kissing her. _Her_.

Aster’s hand moves, and Ellie can’t help the small huff of displeasure at that even when Aster giggles, backing away and tugging at Ellie’s inner shirt—or well, her _shirt_ , now that the outer one is gone.

“Ellie,” Aster says, and her name sounds so much better in Aster’s voice. “Let’s get this out of the way?”

Ellie’s brain isn’t working, but at least her body is, and she robotically brings the shirt over her head, throwing it somewhere behind her. Aster hums, hands back on Ellie and it’s even better now, because it’s skin to skin. “You’re so skinny.”

“I’m sorry?” Ellie says, jaw going slack when Aster laughs again. “You’re—you’re so beautiful. When you laugh, or smile, or just—just breathing.”

“I’m always breathing,” Aster says, amusement in her voice.

Ellie swallows. “You’re always beautiful.”

Aster’s cheeks darken to red, matching the shade of her lips, when she ducks in, those lips against Ellie’s again, soft, perfect, sweet. Ellie doesn’t know what she’s doing, but Aster doesn’t seem to care, coaxing her through the motions until Ellie sucks on her tongue and she squirms, letting out a pleased sound and pulling Ellie in even closer.

-

The first time she watched porn, it was deep _deep_ into the night while her dad snoozed away in the room next door. Just in case, she hid under her covers anyway (like that’d help), phone pressed up to her face, headphones in her ears, and eyes squeezed shut as she typed in the letters through pure sense memory.

 _This is dumb_ , she thought. _This is so dumb, wait is that, holy shit, is it really this easy, wait that’s actually_ —

Back then, she had hopes that she was normal, selecting some incredibly vanilla straight porn ( _lover’s honeymoon_ , the video was called) with two beautiful actors going at it missionary style, and she stared at the woman’s breasts, as the man’s hands slid along the curve of them, fingers brushing over her nipples as she gasped, as they ran down her waist to her belly to her—

She slammed the phone face down into her bed, heart beating too fast and breath coming short, and who knew women shaved down there as well? “Oh,” a voice moaned into her ears, and it took everything in her not to scream. “Yes, right there.”

Her headphones. The video was still going.

“Yeah, you like that?” the man growled, and that was distinctly less sexy, and so she brought the phone back up, peeking at the screen just in time to see a close-up shot of his fingers in the woman, viciously thrusting in and out while she squirmed and moaned and yelled out all sorts of obscenities.

Ellie slowly dropped one hand to between her thighs, sliding it under her pajama bottoms and running a knuckle against her underwear. “Come for me,” the man said, which was kind of just _eh_ , and then he brought his cock into frame, and sure, it was big but relatively unappealing, and when he thrust it into the woman and they both started making weird sounds, it really just brought Ellie out of the trance she’d been in before.

So she did the smart thing, and slid the time cursor back to the beginning, when the man had his mouth on the woman’s breasts, licking and biting and _sucking_ , and maybe Ellie had closed her eyes and imagined it was her in his place, her mouth and her hands that had this woman moaning and gasping. She rocked her hips against her hand, pressed her palm flat against her clit over her underwear, and with the woman’s panting and breathy “oh, oh, _oh,”_ in her ear, she came without a sound.

-

They’ve settled themselves against the edge of the spring, Ellie’s back to Aster’s front because, “I’m taller,” Aster had said with a gleeful grin. They’re still indecent, Aster’s breasts pressing against Ellie’s back, her fingers running along Ellie’s waist, stroking just under her breast while Ellie tries holding in her dumb, weird-sounding whimpers.

“Why’d you write that letter?” Aster asks. “For Paul. If you um, well. If you liked me.”

Ellie reaches down, covering Aster’s hand with her own. “I never thought you’d ever like me back,” she says quietly. “And I wanted you to be happy. You deserve someone extraordinary.”

Aster sighs. “I’m just a girl.”

“You’re not just a girl,” Ellie says. “You’re—” _my star_. “You’re intelligent, and well-spoken, and talented, and _bold._ ”

“Bold strokes,” Aster muses. “I’m glad you wrote, even if you plagiarized most of the first letter.”

“I didn't pl—I was _inspired!_ ” Ellie says emphatically, turning around to face Aster. “And—”

Aster dips down to kiss her, light and chaste and not enough. “Don’t worry,” she teases. "You got better.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oops they reached second base, that wasn't supposed to happen. Also uh, I think Ellie is probably more eloquent in movie-canon, but I am not that eloquent even at just about ten years her senior, so oh well. And one last also, I have never read/watched _The Remains of the Day_ , please don't @ me
> 
> I wrote this all in one go, and god I haven't had this sort of writing spurt in so long. ty to this movie, and to an adorable Ellie Chu who reminds me so much of high school me (especially the being a useless human in my crush's presence part.)


End file.
